"Last chance!"
"Become demons, Kyojuro, Giyuu!"
From the battlefield, neither Rengoku Kyojuro nor Tomioka Giyuu spared a glance at the howling demon.
"Hey, Tomioka, are you alright?"
Giyuu steadied himself, then gave a faint shake of his head.
"Not great. But we held out till the end."
As the words left his mouth, the distant horizon began to brighten — dawn was breaking.
"What!! Its almost sunrise… They kept me fighting until now — damn it…"
Akaza immediately noticed the change. He gritted his teeth and surged forward, slamming his foot into the ground.
"Everyone — die! Commence the ritual!"
A snowflake-like pattern surged beneath him, and an overwhelming pressure engulfed the battlefield.
"What the—?!"
Tomioka Giyuu's eyes narrowed. With no time to think, he grabbed Rengoku Kyojuro and pulled him behind.
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form: Dead Calm!"
In response, Akaza unleashed his full power.
"Destructive Death: Final Form — Blue Silver Chaotic Light!"
In a blinding explosion, hundreds of high-speed, high-power shockwaves erupted outward indiscriminately from Akaza's position.
CRASH CRASH CRASH—
Amid the chaos, Akaza vanished into the forest, not daring to look back.
The sunlight grew stronger. If he didn't flee now, he would never leave alive.
He believed that with that final attack, Rengoku Kyojuro and Tomioka Giyuu were surely dead.
"Tomioka!!"
Rengoku was half-crouched, one hand pressing against his blood-soaked abdomen.
He stared at Giyuu's unmoving back — he didn't dare imagine the damage that last attack had caused.
Even he had been heavily wounded.
And Tomioka Giyuu had taken the brunt of it to protect him.
A few seconds later, Giyuu's legs gave out. His broken Nichirin blade dropped from his hand, clattering against the broken stone.
He collapsed backward.
"Tomioka!"
Rengoku ignored his own pain and caught Giyuu mid-fall. He cradled his comrade's head with one arm and gently laid him down.
But the moment he saw Giyuu's front, his pupils contracted.
"Tomioka!! Don't sleep — stay with me!"
"Use your breathing — stop the bleeding! Don't you dare give up!"
He tried to help, but Giyuu's body was drenched in blood. There was no way to tell where the bleeding started or ended.
Rengoku didn't dare remove his uniform — the injuries looked too severe. Any wrong move could make things worse.
Giyuu didn't respond, but his breathing began to stabilize slightly, as if he'd heard the desperate plea.
"Yes — just like that. Come on, Tomioka… hold on!"
Rengoku's face twitched from pain — his own wound had reopened in the panic.
Just then, two familiar figures sprinted over — Kamado Tanjiro and Hashibira Inosuke.
"Half-half haori?! Tomioka!!"
Tanjiro's voice cracked. Seeing Giyuu like that, bloodied and broken, nearly brought him to tears.
"Giyuu! There has to be a doctor on the train — I'll go find one!"
He turned to dash off, but Rengoku grabbed his wrist.
"No — it's no use. This is beyond what ordinary doctors can handle. We have to wait for the Insect Hashira and the others."
"Tomioka is maintaining his breathing — barely. But how long he can hold out… we don't know."
He looked Tanjiro in the eye.
"Also, don't move recklessly, Kamado. You're badly wounded. That stab to the abdomen is no joke."
Tanjiro's fists clenched as tears welled up. He looked down at the fallen Water Hashira.
"If only I were stronger… If I could've fought Akaza too, Giyuu wouldn't be like this…"
More than ten minutes later, the first one to arrive wasn't a Kakushi — it was Kocho Shinobu, with Kocho Kanae right behind her.
Shinobu's hair clung to her sweat-drenched face, but she rushed straight to Giyuu's side, trembling.
"Giyuu… Why—"
Her voice choked. Her eyes widened in horror.
Her hands stopped just above him, frozen with fear of making it worse.
Tears streamed silently down her cheeks.
Kanae gently placed a steadying hand on her sister's shoulder. Her usual smile was gone, replaced by calm solemnity.
"Shinobu. Breathe."
"We're the only ones who can help him now."
"If you lose control — what happens to Tomioka-san?"
Rengoku, still bleeding himself, slowly set Giyuu down as Kanae motioned.
Shinobu snapped out of her daze. She slapped her cheeks hard to refocus, then began her work with Kanae.
She unfastened Giyuu's uniform.
But when she saw his wounds — the tears came again.
There was barely an inch of uninjured flesh. Craters and pits, some deep and circular, littered his torso.
Worst of all were the ribs — bones were faintly visible through torn muscle.
Shinobu wiped her eyes and nodded to Kanae. Together, they bandaged and stabilized Giyuu as best they could.
Nearly twenty minutes passed before the worst was contained.
Kanae sighed.
"We've done what we can. For now. He needs intensive care back at the Butterfly Estate."
Just then, the Kakushi (Hidden Corps) finally arrived.
***
"Hahaha! Another demon down in one strike today!"
"Wow, Inosuke, you're amazing!"
"HEY! Idiot! Keep it down! You'll wake up Tomioka-san!"
Some time later —
Giyuu's eyelids fluttered open.
The familiar din outside filtered into his consciousness.
He blinked, disoriented, then slowly sat up, grabbing a cup of water from the nearby table.
"…Butterfly Estate… Guess I made it."
The door creaked open.
Three children peeking in saw him sitting upright — and immediately ran back out, shouting:
"Master Tomioka is awake!!"
"Master Tomioka is awake!!"
"Master Tomioka is awake!!"
The first ones to burst in were — of course — Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu.
"Giyuu!" Tanjiro cried, teary-eyed. "You're awake — thank goodness!"
Giyuu waved his hand, his expression gentle.
"You've healed well, Kamado."
Before Tanjiro could reply, Inosuke flexed dramatically.
"Good! Now get better fast and fight me, one-on-one!"
"Hahaha!"